


You prickle my fancy

by PerthroSeidraikiri



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Christmas Romance, FLOWER PUNS, Flower Language, Gen, Hospitals, M/M, Modern AU, Oblivious Danny and Vlad, Pining, Sam is Sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 06:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28346700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerthroSeidraikiri/pseuds/PerthroSeidraikiri
Summary: Sometimes it just takes a little flower language knowledge to set things on track.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton & Skulker, Danny Fenton/Vlad Masters
Comments: 14
Kudos: 32
Collections: Pompous Pep Discord - Jack's Secret Santa 2020





	You prickle my fancy

**Author's Note:**

> I've never ever written this AU SO FORGIVE ME if it isn't that good;;; I'm a bit nervous cause I've never written it lol. (I'm not sorry for the title though, XD)
> 
> Also, I'm sorry; Angst just finds its ways into my fics no matter HOW MUCH i try to control it lmfao. 
> 
> But ahhhh, hope you like it HugsNeeded!  
> This is for the amazing secret Santa event being hosted by the pompep server and I hope the rest of ya'll like it too :3!
> 
> ~~cause i really watered my seeds here lmfao (i had to add a pun v.v)~~

The flower shop opens at exactly six in the morning every day, the lights flick on, a truck drives by fifteen minutes later, tyres loudly drumming on the ground before it stops, the usual jingle of keys follow as the driver steps out, the backdoor of the truck sliding open and Danny’s eyes watch with usual curiosity as the owner of the flower shop steps out, smiling softly; hair pulled back into a low ponytail but silver strands still frame his face. 

The pink apron he has on never fails to make Danny smirk, his eyes running along the cursive ‘I’ll be over in a Lilly bit’. It’s such a horrible pun but it makes him laugh. Not an inch of it is dirty, unlike the man’s hands that are covered with soil.

He sees roses, gardenias and a whole line of other flowing buckets of flowers—that he doesn’t know—leave the truck; gaze right on the owner whose arms flex as he picks three of them up with ease. 

The sun, hazy and dull shining framed amongst all the snow, finally comes up and Danny rushes to the bathroom and is down in his own little shop in five minutes flat, flicking the door sign and biting into his apple before he slides in front of the computer, the screen flickers green, red and grey.

It’s Tucker’s old desktop since they can’t really get a new one yet; until they manage to renovate and add other things; the flickering screen will have to do. 

He’s just about to open up their emails, fingers clicking the mouse with impatience but his phone rings and he welcomes the distraction and quickly picks it up, “Heya Sam.”

_ ‘Hey Danny, slept well?’ _

“Eh, I slept?”

He hears her soft laugh, then a small cough follows but before he can ask if she’s okay she brushes him off and fills him in about the weird patient that’s become her roommate and how he never stops talking about how empty their room is.

Her voice fills his ears and the wait for the old computer to open everything up isn’t such a bother anymore.

Tucker may have all the patience for the machine but he doesn’t and the only thing keeping him from abusing their brand new mouse is her little giggles and quips.

They talk for what feels like hours even though Danny knows it’s just been minutes. 

Sam sighs, a little yawn follows carrying over just how exhausted she is,  _ ‘Oh yeah and Skulker stopped by earlier, seems like he was in a bad mood. I think Ember’s upset with him again.’ _

“She’s always upset with him.”

Sam hums, it sounds tired and a bit… sad. It fills him with a bit of dread too; she hasn’t been to their shop in a long time and he keeps his morbid thoughts to himself as the line goes silent.

Their partners, the tattoo shop belongs to both of them and she has customers waiting for her to pop right back in again but Danny knows that won’t be a for a while.

“I’ll come over today, right after I close shop; that okay?”

Sam doesn’t answer and he whispers a low goodbye just before he cuts the phone.

‘Yeah, Danny, I’d like that. If… you’re free.’

Her tone sounds hopeful, but there’s something else that lingers.

“For you? I always am Sam, I’ll be there. Hide some pudding cups for me okay?”

There’s an amused huff that has him smiling again, snickering along with her before the line cuts and Skulker walks in, shiny black jacket speckled with snow, boots crunching and leaving little flakes of it on the floor.

“You goin’ to see Sam today?” his voice sounds gruff and if Danny looks close enough—which of course he does—he can see the red marks at the corner of his friend’s eyes.

The grin the cracks on his face is totally not a teasing one, “Yeah later... But uh, dude. Have you… been crying?” His tone is however filled with surprising amusement.

A gruff huff of ‘no’ immediately follows and his shoulders square up, he lifts his hand to pretend to wipe his eye with the pitiful excuse of “sand got in my eye, fuck off.” but when he does, the flower bouquet in his hand is raised to glory. 

Danny smiles, “Vlad gave those to you and some piece of advice?”

Skulker doesn’t answer, “They’re for Ember.”

“Jeez, and here I thought they were for me.”

Skulker frowns, lips pursed in a pout as he glares at his little bully before his lips break into a devious grin as he watches Danny peek outside, eyes trailing to their neighbour; the flower shop. 

“I don’t think you want to be receiving flowers from me, whelp.”

Danny’s eyes immediately snap back to him, his mouth agape as he stutters, “And what does that mean?”

“I heard it’s a good time for roses.” The grin on Skukler’s lips gets wider as he presses, “Maybe you should go get some for Sam? Or maybe someone else.” 

Danny bites his bottom lip, the tips of his ears tinging red as Skukler steps aside and places the bouquet into an old vase that sits idly, collecting nothing but dust. 

“Just because Vlad suddenly gave you advice on how to get Ember back doesn’t make you a love expert man,” he drawls, huffing and crossing his arms in front himself like it’ll hide or stop the quick twirls his heart is performing. 

But Skukler just hums and nudges him to move over to check his appointments for the day, gives Danny a little smile and disappears into the back to get ready for his first customer.

The bell above the door jingles and it takes a moment for Danny to pull his eyes away from Vlad’s backside to focus on their customer. 

* * *

The day passes by in a flurry; his shift ends at 3 pm and that’s around the time he knows Vlad has his lunch break, neck hidden by his fluffy large scarf he rushes over, biting his lips to hold the grin threatening to break on his lips. 

With a brush to his hair one last time, he pushes the door open and doesn’t take too long to spot Vlad who’s over by the flower nursery, squatting and mumbling to himself. 

Danny walks slow, snickering as he watches Vlad  _ coo _ at the flowers he’s handling. His apron is missing and the turtleneck he’s wearing is in full view and he’s wearing  _ shorts. _

“Am I interrupting?”

Vlad turns around, huffing in embarrassment, “Shut up brat.” He stands up and flicks Danny’s forehead then gives out a chuckle as Danny quickly ducks. 

It’s their usual routine, teasing each other.

Danny feels his cheeks grow hot as he realizes they’re just staring; that his eyes are drawn into the little tattoo that peeks from under Vlad’s turtleneck and then trails to his arms before finally, Vlad moves around him. 

“How may I help you Daniel?” 

He turns effortlessly, the floor underneath him smooth and waxed to the fullest, “Well uhm-” he gapes, blinking slowly as his eyes run up the man’s back,  _ something’s _ missing, “wait, wait…” his eyes land on Vlad’s hair, still silver and nicely combed back but-

“What happened to your hair?!”

There’s no knot at the back of his head, the usual length hanging and shining is gone.

Vlad’s hand immediately flies to the back of his head, “Ah,” he hums, turning back to face Danny’s large surprised eyes, “I got a hair cut.”

“I can  _ see  _ that.” Danny huffs, for some odd reason he feels way worse than he should, it’s Vlad’s hair he should be allowed to do whatever he wants with it, but it suddenly feels like he’s talking to someone entirely different.

“Hm?” Vlad smiles softly, Danny’s chest stutters, “You don’t like it?”

There’s a little part of him that wants to lie, but his stubborn honest ways weave his next words, “Honestly? I… Well, you look different.”

Vlad frowns, “A… bad different?”

Danny flushes because really, he’s not so sure anymore, “Uhm…” he clears his throat because he’s not sure he likes his own answer either, “I’m here to get some flowers actually.”

Vlad turns back around again, doesn’t press like he normally would.

A crumpling sound follows and the fluttering in his chest turns into clenches as he realizes Vlad’s also dropped the topic, but he’s not saying much—that’s nothing new, but it’s a disappointed kind of silence?—his hands are carefully setting a bouquet together, he places it on the counter gently, he smiles, but it seems a bit forced. “On the house. I hope Ms. Mason gets well soon, wish her for me.” 

Danny’s eyes trail to the back of Vlad’s head again as the man turns around to return a few flowers, “It looks great Vlad…” he mumbles, but it’s loud enough for the man to hear him, “You uhm, look really cool.”

Vlad turns a bit, smiling a bit more softly now, “I’ll see you later Daniel.”

And Daniel leaves, his eyes lingering on the peonies on the front for a few moments before his brain finally catches up as he stares at the bouquet, wondering how Vlad knew they were for Sam. 

* * *

Sam’s miserable, her face is pale and she looks like she needs decades of sleep, but she’s giggling and listening to Danny’s dumb stories like everything is just as it should be. 

Her room-mate speaks up, his voice attention-seeking, “The flowers look great, finally something to fill the room up; I don’t really like bare rooms you know? And that’s a wonderful combination.”

Sam opens her mouth to talk but her roommate presses on, “Do you know flower language because whichever florist you went to, they know their stuff.”

Danny grins, “Yeah, he’s a friend of mine. His place is called ‘Blooming Masters’ if you’d like to go there… or uh, recommend him or something.”

The sunflowers brighten up the room, he’s not afraid to admit that the scent of lavender too kind calms him.

But Sam’s snort pulls him back, “How is he?”

“Who?” Danny blinks, then flushes as both Sam and her room-mate stare at him expectantly, both their eyes trained on him, little tired smirks on their lips.

“Uhm, he’s… he’s fine.” he answers lamely and Sam sighs, “You ask him out yet?”

Blue eyes widen and turn to look at her, “Wh- Sam, what the fuck, why—he doesn’t like me like that.”

Her roommate chuckles, “Young man, it seems like you do. Just because you think he doesn’t like you, doesn’t mean you can’t try to confess. And if as you he’s your friend and not to mention he gave you those for free.”

Sam rolls her eyes at her roommate’s revelation of him eavesdropping.

“That has to mean something.” he finishes, brown eyes creasing at the corners.

“Yeah, and he did send you a lot of flowers when we set up remember and he continued to do so till you told him to stop.”

Her roommate gasps.

Danny flushes, “Well, I wasn’t paying for them so I felt bad!”

Sam sighs, “Did you ever check up on the meanings of those flowers Danny?”

Danny shakes his head, Sam and her roommate sigh even louder and Danny feels like a child being scolded for doing something he knows is wrong but should be lectured about anyway.

“There’s a flower boutique downstairs.” Her roommate speaks up.

“He comes by the town at around 5 right? Buy him a flower or somethin’, show him you’re interested without actually having to say it… wimp.” she smiles, “I bet he likes you too okay? Go for it and stop being such a wimp.”

Danny sees a little sparkle in her eye that he hasn’t seen in a long while as he nods. 

* * *

There’s a thousand flowers that mean ‘I have feelings for you’ and it takes Danny a thousand browser searches to finally find one that seems to… fit all his feelings just right.

The Christmas tune in the shop plays softly as Danny’s eyes focus on the road, waiting for Vlad’s car to pass by, his nose twitches, feeling cold and he buries it into his scarf. 

He doesn’t have his hoodie and Sam had scolded him (along with her roommate) but he can’t really do anything about that.

Flowers in hand, he races forward, almost slipping as watches Vlad park nearby. His chest heaves as he runs, the cold air making t hard to breathe. 

“Vl-AHD!” he calls out, breathlessly and runs straight into him, but the man doesn’t even budge; he holds Danny’s arms tight to stop either of them from falling back. 

He pulls back quickly, “Uhm, hi.”

Vlad raises his eyebrows, “Would you like to join me for coffee?”

Danny blinks, “Uh sure, sure but first, I have…” he thrusts the flowers forward, one of them looks smooshed now and the wrapping around it has gone wobbly, one of the stems is sticking out.

But the peonies are large and they’re blooming, the pink color of them almost the same shade as his face, “this. It’s for you.”

Vlad looks at the flowers then back at Danny, then back at the flowers again obviously waiting for some kind of explanation.

“I bought them over there.” he gestures at the flower shop behind him dumbly. 

Vlad chuckles, “Well, I don’t appreciate your customer disloyalty but alright thank you.”

He reaches for them but Danny holds onto them a bit longer, “You know what they mean right?”

The snow crunches beneath Vlad’s boots as he moves a bit closer, his eyes are brighter up close and he can feel the man’s body heat. 

“Yes Daniel, I do.” he pulls off his coat, the material flutters as it’s thrown around his shoulders before Vlad takes the bouquet, hands lingering on Danny’s fingers as he pulls his cold hands into his own warm ones, breath ghosting over bony knuckles, lips pressing into the spot, right onto the tattoo.

**Author's Note:**

> the last part sounds like he's accepting a proposal XD. ASHDKFHJSD ENDINGs are hard sometimes but I really liked this one.
> 
> Also... does Vlad's hair count as major character?? Cause *sweats while looking at triggers* I just killed Vlad's hair v.v.
> 
> Anyway! merry Christmas :3!


End file.
